Big Bucks Didn’t Translate to Big Buzz at the Olympics (2)
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Nicko Margolies (6)
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As the Olympics have come and gone, it is now time to reflect on the medal counts, the spectacular achievements and finally, the advertising success. China sealed up official sponsorships with record deals and NBC pulled in record viewers on TV and online. The flood of consumers that poured over the games lit up marketing opportunities like an opening ceremony. Amongst these opportunities was a gamble over which athletes to run with. According to a ...
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grow said:
In a post "eye-ball" social media world, the big ad spends are more for legitimacy than action/conversion. If you're gonna spend anyway, you need integrated strategy more than more spots. Speedo strategy seems obvious after the fact, but what about before the ads went in?
“Innovation is our lifeblood,” said Chris Lowe: Coca-Cola to Fill Your Big Gulp with 100 Flavors | PSFK - Trends, Ideas & Inspiration (3)
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Christine Huang (8)
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Apparently, Coca-Cola is on an innovation binge! In addition to introducing new design to their bottles, the world’s largest beverage firm is planning on unveiling a proprietary fountain system capable of pouring 100+ different flavored beverages from a single unit. Though still in testing phase, these new dispensers are about the same size as the typical eight-valve ones, using higher concentrate ingredients to make it possible to cram several flavors cartridges into a small space. ...
“Minority Report” Tech: Our Custom Ad Filled Future (2)
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Dan Gould (39)
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1 week, 3 days
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The Wall Street Journal reports that YCD Multimedia is going to be releasing digital signs that use facial recognition to custom tailor advertising on the fly. The camera equipped signage will scan shopper’s faces and determine their age, sex and ethnicity, based on facial features such as the size and shape of the nose, eyes, cheekbones and jaw line. Once the system figures out who you are, it will serve up an ad for something ...
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Patrick said:
I think it would be a very good idea to have a digital concierge inside every store. It would connect to the inventory system of that particular store (because any degree of irrelevance will result incomplete customer non-use) and it will allow me to search for say jeans in my size and see immediately what's on offer. Indeed once you have digitized this information and turned it into an attractive multimedia presentation there is no reason why people could not access it on say their iPhones as they walk through the mall. Alternatively you could start the other way around and have customers enter their size and preference details and then connect them to products that are relevant to them. The more relevant an add is, the less annoying it is and the more likely it is going to lead to a sale.
Wallace and Gromit as Style Icons (2)
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Orli Sharaby (6)
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1 week, 4 days
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Back in the Spring an Urban Outfitters opened on Atlantic Avenue in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn. The ad that the company used to promote the store included on it the L Train icon, Domino Sugar, Coney Island, Biggie Smalls, Jay Z, the Cosby Show cast… Basically throwing a wide net over what is an incredibly diverse borough, and attempting to claim, through cliched pop culture icons, that Urban Outfitters represents it all. The ...
Interesting Conference New York 2008 (3)
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Dan Gould (39)
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2 weeks, 1 day
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Open Intelligence Agency is bringing the fourth installment of their awesome “Interesting Conference” to New York City next month. Interesting brings speakers together to talk about things they are passionate about, but may have never shared before. Previous conferences have covered a huge range of fascinating and random subjects including: what to do with a broken umbrella, how to turn your blog into a new media company, personal digital archives, making and sampling raw organic ...
Liu Xiang: Sponsors Scramble to Address Fallen Athlete (1)
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Shu Hung (0)
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2 weeks, 1 day
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The Wall Street Journal reports that the fallout surrounding Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang’s withdrawal from the Olympic Games has been met with positive messaging from his sponsors. The athlete, who achieved worldwide fame after he won China’s first gold track and field medal at the 2004 Olympic Games, limped off the track last week complaining of a hamstring injury. Millions of Chinese fans, some of whom had traveled great distances to see their Olympic “hero,” ...
Say Goodbye To Phone Books (1)
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Dan Gould (39)
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2 weeks, 1 day
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Even though physical phone book usage is on the decline, phone companies continue to print and deliver 540 million unsolicited directories a year. In our era of easily accessible online information, you would think they would get the hint. But no, the lucrative $13.58B phone book business keeps chugging along, wasting paper, space and electricity. To stop this madness, check out Yellow Pages Go Green. It’s like a do not call list for phone books. ...
Polo Ralph Lauren Enters the World of QR Codes (2)
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Dan Gould (39)
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3 weeks, 1 day
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QR bar codes, mostly popular in Asia are beginning to slip into wider use. Ralph Lauren has introduced the quick response codes into print ads, mailers and store windows aimed at sending traffic to their new mobile commerce site. The codes, when scanned with a mobile phone with QR software will direct the phone’s browser to a website where you can shop for RL products.
Provenance & SIGG (2)
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Piers Fawkes (16)
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At the start of this year, we featured a prediction by Monocle Magazine’s Tyler Brule that we’ll see brands consider whether to use local materials, production and craftsmanship as a competitive positioning against other brands that get their stuff made in factories in Asia. Brule said: In 2008, provenance is going to become more important at luxury goods companies as CEOs decide whether to downgrade their brands (they wouldn’t call it this, but we would) ...
Tryvertising Wine Becomes A Game (1)
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Joel Horowitz (3)
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Attempting to capture an audience for the ever-expanding wine market, the newly released (board) game, 4xProeven (Tastingx4) tests your party’s wine-tasting skills with four different brands and varieties of wine. Simply played, the label-covered bottles are shuffled, tasted, then compared to the descriptions of the four single grape varieties (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Shiraz) included with the game. Sold online and by a small number of wine stores in the Netherlands, the game ...
Medical Aid Via Coke & Facebook | PSFK - Trends, Ideas & Inspiration (2)
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Dan Gould (39)
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3 weeks, 6 days
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Simon Berry was impressed by Coca Cola’s widespread distribution network in Africa. Though, he found it shocking that remote communities had access to all the Coke they could ever need, but not to life saving medicine. Taking matters into his own hands he started a Facebook group, campaigning to have Coke dedicate some of their distribution infrastructure to help ship medicine to areas that need it. The group grew quickly and generated a lot of ...
Monocle Opens a Newsstand (2)
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Dan Gould (39)
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Monocle magazine has opened up a branded newsstand in Fitzrovia, London. The shop is done up in full Monocle style, offering a clean and stylish way to browse the latest publications. Going forward, the magazine is looking to continue building a network of branded news outlets around the globe. With speculation running wild over the fate of printed matter, this is an interesting move in favor of it’s future. With environmental impact concerns and production ...
Urban Gaming (1)
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Jeff Squires (13)
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Lately, we’ve seen a lot of great projects utilizing high powered projectors. Many of these, such as TXTual Healing, involve an element of social commentary. It’s refreshing however to see a project that panders to plain old simple fun - who hasn’t wanted to play video games on the biggest screen possible? There is not a lot of information on the campaign, but Xbox has set up a myspace page for what they’re calling “Urban ...
14 Ways Starbucks Has Tried to Revitalize its Brand (2)
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Piers Fawkes (16)
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Over on PSFK’s recently relaunched site Marktd, Diana Wolf writes a detailed piece on Starbucks’ multipronged attempt at brand revitalization since H. Schutlz retook control. She writes: “We’re not this young, beloved, entrepreneurial enterprise anymore… We have to do business in a different way.” – Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz And that’s exactly what he’s doing – business in a different way. And then in a different way. And then in a way that’s different from ...
Andrew Andrew Dance for MAC (1)
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Orli Sharaby (6)
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This would be just another ho-hum collaboration/YouTube marketing campaign were it not for the involvement of Andrew Andrew, whom we adore. MAC Cosmetics has hired the pair to sing and dance in several videos on their branded YouTube channel in the name of celebrating creativity (and selling makeup). Still, it’s fun to watch Andrew Andrew’s artist-themed two-step, which instructs viewers on dance moves such as the “dip and splatter” and the “drip drip drip drip.” ...
The Sceptical Futuryst Explores Possible Futures (2)
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Dan Gould (39)
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History is littered with “flying car” predictions of our future. These fantastic visions of a better world to come can be both inspiring and funny when seen in hindsight. Stuart Candy of the Sceptical Futuryst blog has been collecting such ideas about the possible future, many culled from Wired’s last page feature: “Found: artifacts from the future”. It’s interesting to see if and how these predictions come to pass, and also how they shape our ...
Innocent Village Fete (1)
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Although we’re trying our best to avoid writing about advertising and branding on PSFK and delegate it to our new marketing ideas site Marktd, sometimes some folks create somethings that just make us smile. Innocent Drinks held their annual village fete and the photos on Flickr just made us wish we had been in London last weekend. Welly throwing: An ideas tree: Morris dancers (don’t ask): Light relief: And quite a crowd: Innocent Smoothie Fete ...
2008 Favorite Green Brands Index (4)
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Christine Huang (8)
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For young ‘trendsetting’ Americans, green is more about style then substance, a recent study by Outlaw Consulting suggests. Outlaw surveyed 100 “forward trendsetters” in NY, SF, LA, and Miami to create their 2008 Favorite Green Brands Index, asking the group to give their opinions on what makes a brand green and who they thought were today’s most environmentally conscious companies. The survey found that their trendsetter’s made a (sometimes false) correlation between brands that favored ...
Objectified: The Follow Up Film To Helvetica (2)
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Molly Rosenberg (0)
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Gary Hustwit, director of the documentary Helvetica, has officially announced that he is working on a follow up film, Objectified, about industrial design. The documentary, which is set to premiere in early 2009, will explore our relationship with everyday objects, everything from radios to toothbrushes, and those individuals responsible for designing them. According to Hustwit: Those of you who followed the making of my first film, Helvetica, know that the reason I make these films ...
